Bits and pieces of my life. I am a lifelong Christian. I have been married for over 41 years to Stan. No children. We have 1 Italian Greyhound named Capodimonte and 2 calico cats named Capt. Fishipants (a rare MALE calico) and Daphne Doolittle. We have 9 nieces/nephews and 10 grandnieces/nephews whom we love. My hobbies are genealogy, reading, digital scrapbooking, history, dogs, homemaking. This is a personal blog, not a business. I share what interests me I am not selling or making a profit.

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..........Contact me at Mom25dogs@gmail.com.........

Friday, December 21, 2012

Yesterday I took 3 1/2 hours to process up my groceries. Maybe you don't know what I mean but I'm going to show you in this post. These are a few of the things I "processed".

Here is what I bought all that stuff for:
Cabbage Chowder
Coleslaw
Hobo dinner
Hamburger patties (to make hamburgers later in the week)
Meatloaf
Cheese spread to give for Christmas gifts and to take to Christmas Eve at my mother-in-law's house
Broccoli Salad
Sausage and eggs for Christmas Brunch

I multi-tasked by putting in a load of laundry. Then I jumped in. I got all my fruits and vegetables that I had bought at the grocery store and started rinsing them.

Then I put them in a sink full of cold water and white vinegar to wash them.
A final rinse and I was ready to start. I cut the ends off my celery and putting it in my Tupperware celery keeper.
The bunch was too big to fit in the celery keeper and put the lid on it so I cut it into celery sticks and that worked.

I pulled my Kitchenaid mixer out of the appliance cabinet and put on the grater attachment. I chopped the cabbage in quarters and peeled carrots and an onion. I used the grater to make enough cabbage for the coleslaw. Then grated the carrot and onion.

I chopped the rest of the cabbage and put it in a bowl in the fridge to be used in my cabbage chowder. I used an air tight Tupperware bowl made to keep onions to store the remainder of the onion. It will be used in the cabbage chowder too.

I rinsed the grater and put it back on the Kitchenaid mixer and began shredding my cheeses.

I shredded cheddar cheese to be used in the cheese spreads and the broccoli salad. I shredded the Swiss cheese to use in the cabbage chowder. I sliced the rest to be used for cheese and crackers.

Next I pulled out the frying pan and started frying the bacon to be used in my broccoli salad and my sausage to be used for Christmas Brunch.

I'm not through with the Kitchenaid mixer yet. I removed the grater and washed it up. I put the ingredients for my cheese spread in the mixer's bowl and whipped it up.

This made up 6 batches of cheese spread. I put them in containers and put them in the refrigerator. While the bacon and sausage was cooking up I cleaned up the Kitchenaid mixer. I'm still not through with it.

I seasoned some of the hamburgers and made hamburger steaks to go in my hobo dinner (hamburger steaks with veggies, wrapped in tinfoil and baked). Then I cut up the potatoes, carrots and onions. I snipped fresh cilantro on top and sprinkled with salt and pepper and wrapped in tinfoil to pop in the oven for our supper tonight.

As I'm still working with the sausage and bacon, I put the Kitchenaid mixer back together and began putting together the ingredients for the meatloaf in the mixer bowl. I let the mixer blend it.

I finally finished processing everything I intended to. I put the stuff I made ahead in the refrigerator and freezer.

With the groceries processed, I'm not through in the kitchen. I went and transferred the washed clothes into the dryer and started another load to wash. And I started cleaning up the kitchen. I pulled everything off the countertops and wiped up. Then I polished the granite countertops. I wiped or washed everything before putting it back on the countertops. I filled the dishwasher and started it and did some washups. I took out the trash and recycling. The kitchen is now cleaned up. I popped the hobo dinner in the oven and folded clothes and I was done for the day. It took 3 1/2 hrs to process the groceries and clean up the kitchen. But I got supper done and made all those cheese spread gifts. I also have meatloaf and hamburger patties in the freezer for 2 meals and cabbage and cheese ready to make cabbage chowder so that's 3 meals ready to go this week plus the one we were eating that night. I also got the sausage made for Christmas brunch and the bacon and cheese done for the broccoli salad.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

You might want to think again. I went to look at a house last week that was built in 1964 (49 yrs ago). For the time, it was very well and expensively built. It had 4 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths. Most of the baths had white marble countertops. The countertops were still strong. No cracks, everything tight. But here is why I wouldn't want white marble countertops.... the staining and aging. They had aged with a yellowish and gray color and had stains that made them look ugly. And, from use, were no longer "shiny".

This was the half bath. I hope this picture I took shows you the staining and the dullness of the finish.

This was one of the two master bathrooms. That's right, there were two en suite bathrooms in the master bedroom suite with a total of 3 sinks, 2 commodes, 1 shower and 2 soaking bathtubs (one a whirlpool).

In one bathroom there was an "outer sink" and then an "inner sink". The outer sink was right as you walked in the door and across from it was a dressing room. The inner sink was in the bathroom proper. The outer sink had obviously not been used much as the marble was pristine. Here it is.

The inner sink was the heavily used one and I think it had been replaced probably in the 1980's. I could be wrong, but I think it odd that the two countertops didn't match and "almond" or "beige" was the popular color for everything from countertops to appliances in the '80's. Also ceramic countertops were big in the 1980's. But the undermount sink is not the usual 1980's look, it's more of a 1960's look so??? But if I'm right, that probably means the original white marble countertop had gotten stained enough that they wanted to replace it. Here is the inner sink.

Now compare to a new white marble countertop.

I just don't think it will stay that pretty and shiny like a granite countertop would. If you inherited a white marble countertop, do some research on how to care for it. But if you are building/remodeling be aware of the pitfalls of a white countertop and I, for sure, wouldn't advise a white marble sink.

Another thing about that house last week...did you notice the real brass faucets and handles? Not brass plated like you get now but the real deal. It doesn't look like much but how many of today's faucets will still be going strong in 50 yrs? I don't know if they would polish up, but even if they did, cleaning them would dull the finish again. I prefer the look of shiny chrome but if I bought that house, I don't know if I would go to the trouble or expense of changing what's working and will probably work for another 50 yrs!

Thrifty Thursday is a blogging prompt through Geneabloggers. Do you have some neat ways of saving money when it comes to genealogy? Have you located a bargain on some research resource or office supply? Post about it during Thrifty Thursday! This series has been suggested by Judy Webster of Queensland Genealogy. My submission:

I love cemetery hunting. My husband and I like to take a good picnic, camera, GPS and go cemetery hunting on pretty days. I don't know that we will stop doing this completely because we enjoy it. And it gives us an excuse to ride out in the country and see where our ancestors lived. But, due to the cost of gas, we've cut it way back in the last year or two.

To drive down the road, point and you will see a circle on the road. Move it and double click and you drive down the road. If you want to stay stationary and look to the right, left or behind, you can move that circle and single click and get a 360 degree view. Looks like there is a seafood restaurant across the street from the cemetery. It won't go off the road so it's only good for a roadside view.

You can do this with houses too if you know the address. For instance, I could get an address off a death certificate or obituary and look it up on Google Maps. Then see if there is a street view. If you want to see a workplace or church, do a Google search and see if you can find an address. Then put the street address into Google Maps and do a search and see if there is a street view.

Another wonderful online resource is FindAGrave.com. If you are lucky, your ancestor's gravestone may have already been transcribed on FindAGrave. Most of them have photos of the gravestone and cemetery. If you get involved with FindAGrave, you could volunteer by going to nearby cemeteries and taking photos of gravestones. Then enter your information in FindAGrave to help other genealogists. They could be your own ancestors or just local cemeteries. Or maybe there is a church down the street from you and it's no skin off your nose to take photos and input them in FindAGrave. (Be sure to check and see if it's already been done before you waste your time.) If you find a photo of your ancestor's gravestone, place your cursor over it and right click on the image. Select "Save Image As" and save it to your computer. Be sure to save it in a folder where you can find the photo later. For instance, if I'm researching my Reese line, I have a folder in the My Pictures folder called Reese Genealogy Photos. Then if I find a photo of a Reese ancestor's gravestone, I would save it to that Reese Genealogy Photos folder.

My last tip is to always do a Google search on your ancestor's name. You may be pleasantly surprised to find them in a cemetery survey, FindAGrave, Google books, newspaper article, obituary (if not too old) or in another person's online family tree. If it's someone else's family tree, ALWAYS take it with a grain of salt until you can prove it with sources. It could give you erroneous information. Typos, confusion, human mistakes can happen. But one time I did a Google search and found an old newspaper article from the 19th century about this ancestor being involved in an ax murder where he was convicted and he died in prison. I kept looking through the Google search and even found newspaper transcripts of the trial. I didn't have to leave my home in order to find this. So I found a thrilling story on an ancestor and it didn't cost me anything.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily blogging prompt on Geneabloggers.com. Create a post which includes an image of a gravestone.

My sister needed to pick up a rescue dog in York, SC and I rode with her. I saw this great cemetery and Elaine let me out to take photos. I love cemeteries, especially the older ones. They knew how to make gravestones back then. For practical reasons, modern cemeteries usually go with a sort of generic flat bronze plaque. At least there is a lasting marker but I prefer headstones. And almost every decoration of a gravestone has symbolic meanings. As an amateur taphophile, I love collecting photos of beautiful tombstones.